Arbitral Award Without Corroboration Of Claim Certificate Patently Illegal: Himachal Pradesh High Court

The Himachal Pradesh High Court has held that when there is no appearance of a qualified person to corroborate the claim certificate, the arbitral award suffers patent illegality.A Division Bench of Chief Justice G.S. Sandhawalia and Justice Ranjan Sharma remarked that: “In the absence of corroboration of the certificate… and any qualified person putting in appearance, the award of ₹3.82 crore along with lease money is arbitrary and constitutes patent illegality.”The Court partly allowed an appeal filed by the Himachal Pradesh Road and Other Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd., challenging an arbitral award in favour of C&C Construction Ltd. The dispute arose from a 2008 contract for widening and strengthening the Una road project.Initially, the project was to be completed in March 2011, however got delayed due to various reasons till October 2014. After the project was completed, the contractor invoked arbitration seeking damages for the delay in work and the prolongation of the contract. Thereafter, the arbitral tribunal passed the award in favour of the contractor, holding that the delay in work was due to the State Corporation. Aggrieved, the Himachal Pradesh Road Corporation challenged the award and filed a petition before the High Court. However, the award was upheld by the High Court. After which, the Himachal Pradesh Road Corporation filed a Civil Arbitration Appeal under Section 37 of the Arbitration Act, before the Division Bench of the High Court.The division bench partly upheld the award, holding that the office expenses and lease money were not proved with credible evidence, and the Chartered Accountant who issued the supporting certificate never appeared as a witness, and no record substantiated the computation.Case Name: Himachal Pradesh Road and other Infrastructure Development Corp. Ltd. v/s M/s C&C Construction Ltd. Case No.: Civil Arb. Appeal No.01 of 2023Date of Decision: 31.10.2025For the appellant: Mr. J.S. Bhogal, Senior Advocate with Mr.Tarunjeet Singh Bhogal, Ms. Srishti Verma and Ms. Swati Verma, Advocates.For the respondents: Mr. Navin Kumar, Ms. Surbhi Aggarwal,Mr. Deepal Hoda and Mr. Rohit, Advocates.Click Here To Read/Download Order

Arbitral Award Without Corroboration Of Claim Certificate Patently Illegal: Himachal Pradesh High Court

Mehak Aggarwal

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